The doing away of 10th Board, in retrospect was a bad policy decision on many counts, but most importantly for narrow short sighted goals it was the dismantling of Mahatma Gandhi’s larger vision of vocational education after schooling where rising costs and socioeconomic compulsions make it difficult for most parents to bear the burden of further education. Indeed it was the 10th Board that had provided standardization of standards and uniformity for assessments before a student would have embarked on employable skills based training so critical for a country that wishes to improve its literacy rate and capitalize on its demographic dividend.
Similarly all efforts at doing away of numerical assessment in favor of grading that has stood the test of time for a shortsighted and purported benefit of lesser competition and less stress have not taken into account the issues and problems associated with its implementation in later and spirit. The fact of the matter remains that even in most of the IITs today numerical assessment is converted into grades just for the sake of arriving at those grades thus defeating the very purpose of grading.
The latest in the series is the draft Central legislation on the constitution of the National Commission for Higher Education and Research (NCHER) that proposes to dismantle the University Grants Commission (UGC), the All-India Council for Technical Education (AICTE), the National Council for Teacher Education (NCTE) and sets up another overarching body with immense powers and responsibilities to usher an era of highly centralized and authoritarian institutionalization with little guarantee and safeguards to ensure the vision of academic freedom and decentralized democratic structures of Professor Yash Pal or the agenda of neo-liberal reforms that Sam Pitroda was so impatient to implement. Amusingly the Task Force constituted to aid and advise the MHRD to set up the NCHER has skirted the issue of promoting autonomy, decentralization, competition and privatization of higher education that even Kapil Sibal has been publicly recommending. It is unclear that the orchestrated campaign against the now discredited privately funded deemed universities sparing other private state government recognized Universities and more importantly the public funded Central and other Universities that in many a cases suffer with yet lower quality standards. It is now learnt that some of these Deemed Universities under de novo category were not even allowed to complete their mandated five year term as per Governments own notification before they were recommended for derecognition. It is also preposterous to presume that the façade of a national collegiums of advisers, comprising of core members and another set of co-opted members will not be compromised by the political selection process as has been indeed the case in the past with such positions as the UGC or AICTE or NCTE Chairman’s selections may bear testimony and the past remains a good barometer for future. The patronage of a position for a lifetime is again against all canons of promoting democratization and decentralization and the possible rationale is that it would ensure both continuity and change in the determination of policies in higher education is highly questionable. The Bill also provides for the preparation of a national registry of Vice-Chancellors and mandates that Vice-Chancellors of State universities and even private Universities be appointed from a panel of names selected by the commission from the registry is a very serious affront to the wisdom of others and the freedom and autonomy of the University system, particularly in a federal polity as ours. The issue is not whether the Commission would always act fairly, but whether such an arrangement would be consistent with the principles of autonomy. These decisions have been contrary to the emerging global trends in privatization of higher education and have brought immense disrepute internationally to India’s own academic standing.
Yes true to his inimitable cavalier style Kapil Sibal, again has ensured that the Human Resource Ministry’s acceptance of ‘Tandon Committee Report’ recommending without much ado derecognition of 44 Deemed Universities followed by another 44 in the next three years indeed opens a Pandora’s Box. It is learned that on 18th August, 2009 representatives of these Universities were summoned by the ‘Tandon Committee’ constituted amid much hurry, bypassing the Constitutional Authority, the University Grants Commission (UGC) by the same Ministry of HRD for a hurriedly convened ‘Durbar’ presided over by Dr P N Tandon. It is alleged by the Universities that such a short hearing without any transparent parameters indeed became a meaningless exercise and a mockery of the process which is evident from the fact that 126 Deemed Universities were heard in just 4 days and each one of them was given a mere 10 minutes, wherein only a formal introduction was really possible. Incidentally on verification from the Ministry of HRD sources it is confirmed that till date no copy of the said Report has been furnished or the minimum standards of assessment or parameters were ever been defined or the observations of the Committee been informed to the Universities concerned before recommending the purported action of de-recognition. It also transpires that the UGC, a statutory body, under its Act had earlier appointed an expert committee to visit these institutions and the Deemed to be University status was granted only after a thorough on site inspection, interaction and physical verification of all aspects by the Ministry of Human Resource Development vide its gazette notifications under Section 3 of UGC Act 1956. Ironically, enough it is also understood that the Chairman of this Task Force, Prof. P.N. Tandon, himself is the President of the society of one of the Deemed Universities (under De-Novo category) named National Brain Research Centre, Manesar, Haryana that was recommended to be one of the 38 Universities found to be fit out of the total list of 126 reviewed by him. The fact also remains that one of the members of the said Tandon Committee, Shri Sunil Kumar happened to be one of the handpicked bureaucrats of the then HRD Minister Arjun Singh, who was instrumental in having these Institutions declared as Deemed to be Universities.
Although Education in our country is in the concurrent list, upholding, regulating and maintaining the quality in higher education happens to be the responsibility of Central Government as recently settled by Calcutta High Court which had declared several teacher-training institutions in Bengal illegal as they did not meet NCTE requirements despite their meeting state government standards. In due fairness to the Deemed Universities the purported ‘Tandon’ review exercise was limited to only the Deemed Universities that even included the de novo category, which had not even completed the first five years, before a review was to be undertaken as per government’s own gazette notification. Many of these Universities particularly in remote and rural heartland were infact fulfilling the mandate of Government of India working on various projects with different government and non-government bodies that were in any case based on independent inspections. Some of these Universities included the likes of Gurukul Kangri an age old Institution, Rajiv Gandhi National Institute of Youth Development and many Universities graded much higher than to even some of the IITs and Central Government Universities. It is lamented by these Universities, a few of whom were even accredited as ISO 9001-2000 Institutions with academic collaborations and independent academic validations with several reputed foreign Universities, Industries and Institutions. Highly aggrieved, notes one of the promoters, having invested huge amounts and despite conforming to every possible guideline issued by the University Grants Commission and the Trust byelaws and regulations that were open to public scrutiny and having the best possible educational standards they have been derecognized by the Government and condemned, unheard and hence deprived of even the Principle of Natural Justice. The review exercise surprisingly enough had spared the State Private Universities and other Central and State Universities where despite huge public expenditures over a number of years no such review was even contemplated. On a cue from the Ministry of HRD, the print and the visual media immediately started a concerted campaign and initiated their own media trial against some of these Universities, surprisingly oblivious of the even poorer standards of the State Universities, State recognized Private Universities and other Central Universities barring a few notable exceptions. As pointed out by one of the Deemed to be Universities, the witch hunting was exacerbated by rival competition and a vicious cartel of vested interests, funneled by greed and demands for illegal gratification by individuals who now plague the corridors of power in the regulatory institutions. They wonder that in the years to come any private capital or enterprise would again dare venture in the arena of higher education in India and allege that even Minister Kapil Sibal appears to have been taken for a ride as he was caught unaware as could be made of from his own press statements.
The entire fiasco as it now emerges has been best summed up recently with some good advice for HRD Minister Kapil Sibal by Oscar Fernandes, Chairman of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Human Resource Development that he cannot ignore ‘even if there are deficiencies the Deemed Universities should be given another chance’ to promote governments own mandate and to encourage public private partnerships in higher education so that the governments may concentrate more on its promise to ensure quality free and compulsory primary education.
Similarly all efforts at doing away of numerical assessment in favor of grading that has stood the test of time for a shortsighted and purported benefit of lesser competition and less stress have not taken into account the issues and problems associated with its implementation in later and spirit. The fact of the matter remains that even in most of the IITs today numerical assessment is converted into grades just for the sake of arriving at those grades thus defeating the very purpose of grading.
The latest in the series is the draft Central legislation on the constitution of the National Commission for Higher Education and Research (NCHER) that proposes to dismantle the University Grants Commission (UGC), the All-India Council for Technical Education (AICTE), the National Council for Teacher Education (NCTE) and sets up another overarching body with immense powers and responsibilities to usher an era of highly centralized and authoritarian institutionalization with little guarantee and safeguards to ensure the vision of academic freedom and decentralized democratic structures of Professor Yash Pal or the agenda of neo-liberal reforms that Sam Pitroda was so impatient to implement. Amusingly the Task Force constituted to aid and advise the MHRD to set up the NCHER has skirted the issue of promoting autonomy, decentralization, competition and privatization of higher education that even Kapil Sibal has been publicly recommending. It is unclear that the orchestrated campaign against the now discredited privately funded deemed universities sparing other private state government recognized Universities and more importantly the public funded Central and other Universities that in many a cases suffer with yet lower quality standards. It is now learnt that some of these Deemed Universities under de novo category were not even allowed to complete their mandated five year term as per Governments own notification before they were recommended for derecognition. It is also preposterous to presume that the façade of a national collegiums of advisers, comprising of core members and another set of co-opted members will not be compromised by the political selection process as has been indeed the case in the past with such positions as the UGC or AICTE or NCTE Chairman’s selections may bear testimony and the past remains a good barometer for future. The patronage of a position for a lifetime is again against all canons of promoting democratization and decentralization and the possible rationale is that it would ensure both continuity and change in the determination of policies in higher education is highly questionable. The Bill also provides for the preparation of a national registry of Vice-Chancellors and mandates that Vice-Chancellors of State universities and even private Universities be appointed from a panel of names selected by the commission from the registry is a very serious affront to the wisdom of others and the freedom and autonomy of the University system, particularly in a federal polity as ours. The issue is not whether the Commission would always act fairly, but whether such an arrangement would be consistent with the principles of autonomy. These decisions have been contrary to the emerging global trends in privatization of higher education and have brought immense disrepute internationally to India’s own academic standing.
Yes true to his inimitable cavalier style Kapil Sibal, again has ensured that the Human Resource Ministry’s acceptance of ‘Tandon Committee Report’ recommending without much ado derecognition of 44 Deemed Universities followed by another 44 in the next three years indeed opens a Pandora’s Box. It is learned that on 18th August, 2009 representatives of these Universities were summoned by the ‘Tandon Committee’ constituted amid much hurry, bypassing the Constitutional Authority, the University Grants Commission (UGC) by the same Ministry of HRD for a hurriedly convened ‘Durbar’ presided over by Dr P N Tandon. It is alleged by the Universities that such a short hearing without any transparent parameters indeed became a meaningless exercise and a mockery of the process which is evident from the fact that 126 Deemed Universities were heard in just 4 days and each one of them was given a mere 10 minutes, wherein only a formal introduction was really possible. Incidentally on verification from the Ministry of HRD sources it is confirmed that till date no copy of the said Report has been furnished or the minimum standards of assessment or parameters were ever been defined or the observations of the Committee been informed to the Universities concerned before recommending the purported action of de-recognition. It also transpires that the UGC, a statutory body, under its Act had earlier appointed an expert committee to visit these institutions and the Deemed to be University status was granted only after a thorough on site inspection, interaction and physical verification of all aspects by the Ministry of Human Resource Development vide its gazette notifications under Section 3 of UGC Act 1956. Ironically, enough it is also understood that the Chairman of this Task Force, Prof. P.N. Tandon, himself is the President of the society of one of the Deemed Universities (under De-Novo category) named National Brain Research Centre, Manesar, Haryana that was recommended to be one of the 38 Universities found to be fit out of the total list of 126 reviewed by him. The fact also remains that one of the members of the said Tandon Committee, Shri Sunil Kumar happened to be one of the handpicked bureaucrats of the then HRD Minister Arjun Singh, who was instrumental in having these Institutions declared as Deemed to be Universities.
Although Education in our country is in the concurrent list, upholding, regulating and maintaining the quality in higher education happens to be the responsibility of Central Government as recently settled by Calcutta High Court which had declared several teacher-training institutions in Bengal illegal as they did not meet NCTE requirements despite their meeting state government standards. In due fairness to the Deemed Universities the purported ‘Tandon’ review exercise was limited to only the Deemed Universities that even included the de novo category, which had not even completed the first five years, before a review was to be undertaken as per government’s own gazette notification. Many of these Universities particularly in remote and rural heartland were infact fulfilling the mandate of Government of India working on various projects with different government and non-government bodies that were in any case based on independent inspections. Some of these Universities included the likes of Gurukul Kangri an age old Institution, Rajiv Gandhi National Institute of Youth Development and many Universities graded much higher than to even some of the IITs and Central Government Universities. It is lamented by these Universities, a few of whom were even accredited as ISO 9001-2000 Institutions with academic collaborations and independent academic validations with several reputed foreign Universities, Industries and Institutions. Highly aggrieved, notes one of the promoters, having invested huge amounts and despite conforming to every possible guideline issued by the University Grants Commission and the Trust byelaws and regulations that were open to public scrutiny and having the best possible educational standards they have been derecognized by the Government and condemned, unheard and hence deprived of even the Principle of Natural Justice. The review exercise surprisingly enough had spared the State Private Universities and other Central and State Universities where despite huge public expenditures over a number of years no such review was even contemplated. On a cue from the Ministry of HRD, the print and the visual media immediately started a concerted campaign and initiated their own media trial against some of these Universities, surprisingly oblivious of the even poorer standards of the State Universities, State recognized Private Universities and other Central Universities barring a few notable exceptions. As pointed out by one of the Deemed to be Universities, the witch hunting was exacerbated by rival competition and a vicious cartel of vested interests, funneled by greed and demands for illegal gratification by individuals who now plague the corridors of power in the regulatory institutions. They wonder that in the years to come any private capital or enterprise would again dare venture in the arena of higher education in India and allege that even Minister Kapil Sibal appears to have been taken for a ride as he was caught unaware as could be made of from his own press statements.
The entire fiasco as it now emerges has been best summed up recently with some good advice for HRD Minister Kapil Sibal by Oscar Fernandes, Chairman of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Human Resource Development that he cannot ignore ‘even if there are deficiencies the Deemed Universities should be given another chance’ to promote governments own mandate and to encourage public private partnerships in higher education so that the governments may concentrate more on its promise to ensure quality free and compulsory primary education.
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